Why China leads the world in virtual reality adoption

Companies specialising in virtual reality are turning their VR heads to East, examining the growth in China’s market. While in the West the interest in VR is still mainly focused on consumer applications like gaming, China invests in profitable business applications.

Why China leads virtual reality adoption

China is fast emerging as the world’s most important VR market, thanks to rapid adoption by property firms and by companies in other industries.

The main reason for it is that mainlanders are extremely enthusiastic early adopters of emerging technologies, even if the early versions are imperfect.

Secondly, China leads the world in the use of the mobile internet. Chinese investors are convinced that the majority of users in future will access VR via their smartphones, not via goggles attached to computers.

Goldman Sachs predicts that mainland China will already account for a third of global VR headset sales this year.

Firms invest in experiences

The reason why China is so ahead of the rest of the world in VR adoption is simple. It already has a full infrastructure in place for consumers to try it out.

HTC, is treating local market as its first priority. HTC collaborates with Suning and Gome, two Chinese electronics retailers, to distribute its products.

It plan for 2017 is to set up over 10,000 sophisticated “experience centres” for VR across the country.

“There is faster adoption and a wider embrace of VR here than in any market in the world,” declares Alvin Graylin, a VR executive at HTC.

HTC’s Vive equipment can be found at theme parks, karaoke bars and gaming cafés, shopping malls and experience centres right across the mainland. There are already over 100,000 internet cafés offering VR sessions for just a few dollars.

HTC experience cafe in China

Apart from that, local manufacturers are making cheap VR adaptors for smartphones making VR even more accessible to the audience.

News coming from major e-commerce firm – Alibaba. Chinese giant will soon launch a service that will allow the purchase of physical goods using VR equipment.

Economists turn VR heads to East

Economists are closely monitoring technology adoption in China, and try to figure out a path for Western consumers to adopt the technology. At Virsabi, we also believe that China is an extremely inspiring market for many businesses. We are proud to be one of the first companies in Europe to implement innovative virtual reality solutions and help our clients to take advantage the technology. Learn how on our website, or visit our workspace.

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